11 Reasons To Root For Team USA In The World Cup

The USA has a tough road ahead of them but they’re more than up for the challenge. The team will bestaying and training in Sao Paulo which means the team will have to travel 8,874 miles to play their group stage matches.

And it isn’t just travel that’ll give them a run, they play Ghana who eliminated the U.S. from the 2010 World Cup in the first knockout round and beat the U.S. 2-1 in the 2006 World Cup opening round. After that they go up against Ronaldo and his Portuguese crew. And when all that is said and done they have to go up against crowd favorite Germany, which means they are definitely the underdog but it also means they are in for some fucking good football.

3. Which makes sense because they have Clint Dempsey.

Dempsey isn’t one to fuck with. He was a superstar in the qualifying rounds for team USA, resulting in being named the captain for the Cup team. He opened his 2014 MLS season strong, scoring eight goals and three assists in only nine games played.

5. And a slew of younger players that have major potential.

With Landon Donovan out (the most experienced player in the history of US men’s soccer) it leaves an opening for someone new to take a leadership position. And there are many eager players ready to step up. Only five of the twenty-three players have been to the World Cup before and the youngest player is only 18 years old.

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6. Jürgen Klinsmann will be their leader.

Jürgen played 17 seasons for the national team in Germany, scoring 233 goals and winning the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Pretty impressive huh? Unfortunately his start as the coach of Team USA didn’t go as well. Luckily in 2012 he earned his keep when the team beat Italy for the first time since 1934 and ended the season with the best record in the club’s history. Since then, things have only gotten more impressive for a man who is not afraid to go with his gut.

10. And despite playing in seven of the last ten World Cups they haven’t gone past the quarterfinals since 1930. So they’re thirsty.

In their second game of the 1930 tournament, USA beat Paraguay 3-0 with a hat-trick from Bert Patenaude, which made the striker the owner of the first ever World Cup hat-trick. The team went on to semi-finals where they faced and lost to Argentina. It was a let down but in the absence of a third place playoff, FIFA awarded the USA third place at the 1930 World Cup based on tournament record.